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Good morning.

Just more than a year since Chrystia Freeland, then federal finance minister, said she would ask the Office of the Chief Actuary to calculate how much money Alberta would receive from the Canada Pension Plan were the province to exit the national retirement system, the report has been delivered.

Except according to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, there are no specific figures or formulae that answer that question.

“It doesn’t contain a number. And it doesn’t even contain a formula for how you get to a number,” Smith said Thursday at an unrelated news conference where she announced a long-awaited compensation deal with family doctors.

“We were under the impression that the chief actuary was hiring three different analysts to look at the legislation, to be able to get three very precise ways of looking at this issue, so that we had a precise number,” she said.

When Alberta pitched the creation of its own provincial pension plan last year, the province argued it should be entitled to more than half of the multibillion-dollar fund.

The CPP holds about $647-billion in assets, up from $575-billion a year ago. When Alberta released a report calculating its share last year, it believed the province was entitled to about 53 per cent of the entire pension fund’s projected assets in 2027, equivalent to $334-billion.

While the federal government (and some provinces) wasn’t in agreement and Freeland herself said she thought Alberta’s figures were unrealistic, she said she would have the chief actuary calculate an asset transfer “based on a reasonable interpretation of the provisions” in the CPP legislation.

Other than Quebec, every province is part of the CPP, and provisions do exist allowing a province to withdraw their share of the funds if they want to set up their own system. However, interpreting the legislation over how the assets would be divided is the challenge.

Smith has said Alberta would consider holding a referendum on whether residents wanted to set up their own pension fund based on the best information and what that asset transfer may look like. On Thursday, she said Alberta cannot proceed with a referendum on exiting the CPP until the federal government details how big a piece of the federal pension pie the province would be entitled to.

“We actually both need to have an agreement on a number before going to a referendum,” Smith said. “There would be no point if we don’t have some commitment from the federal government that they will honour the result of a referendum.”

The Premier said Alberta will ask the federal Finance Minister – who, as of Thursday, became Dominic LeBlanc after Freeland quit at the start of the week – once the political turmoil rollicking Ottawa eases. A larger cabinet shuffle took place Friday and it appears some discussion has been had about the Prime Minister resigning in the new year.

The federal finance department said Thursday that it shared the chief actuary’s report with all the provinces and territories in November.

“Discussions will take place between the government of Canada and provinces and territories over the coming weeks regarding the report and possible next steps,” said Benoit Mayrand, a spokesperson in the finance department, in the statement.

At Thursday’s press conference, the Premier said the report is public, although The Globe and Mail could not locate it.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.